– a haiku sequence
Owen Bullock
waiting to go your eyelashes more mascara at the ends airport lounge a young man chews a sandwich magnanimously bored tax & duty free your face a place to rest watching you flick through a fashion magazine my judgements all wrong summer rains – the door of the graveyard stands open how I want my gravestone to look overgrown like this rose bush a solitary pigeon where the waterwheel once turned Grasmere reflections soft as rain on water tea on the lawn an old man watches a miniscule bird holidays – we complain about what we normally do a duck’s wake takes me in dawn my dead brother’s spirit and a melody summer garden a poppy petal tumbles halfway up the ornamental wall a snail cliffwalk I cool my forehead with dew from a leaf granite fireplace the age in me your restless sleep . . . keeping still their wall in Truthwall bright yellow airport – as we walk, you straighten my collar
Owen Bullock’s most recent publication is Impression (Beir Bua Press, 2022). His other titles include, Uma rocha enorme que anda à roda (A big rock that turns around), translations of his tanka into Portuguese by Francisco Carvalho (Temas Originais, 2021), Summer Haiku (Recent Work Press, 2019), Work & Play (Recent Work Press, 2017), and Semi (Puncher & Wattmann, 2017). He teaches Creative Writing at the University of Canberra. His other interests include juggling, music and chess. https://poetry-in-process.com/ @OwenTrail @ProcessPoetry
Old Water Rat Publishing 